Letters

Revising history, Mr. Brandt seems to have completely dismissed the Democratic Party for slavery in the 100-plus years prior. Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat credited for passing the Civil Rights Act, was an avowed racist who shamelessly declared (I paraphrase here) “As long as those nigras gotta vote, I’ll have them voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”

When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it was overwhelmingly endorsed by 80 percent of Republicans and endured 57 days of filibuster in the Senate, which finally ended when Republican Senator Everett Dirksen, in a speech, called upon the Democrats to end their filibuster. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, a former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, had spoken against the bill for 14 hours during that filibuster.

Let us consider the race card that Mr. Brandt speaks of and has become a typical Democratic trope, along with “xenophobe” and “bigot.” Consider that along with LBJ’s Democratic strategy came the Great Society and urban blight associated with a progressive agenda of keeping minorities and the poor permanently in their thrall. Liberal policies that keep minorities where they are by giving them handouts instead of a hand up, thus ensuring a permanent class of Democratic voters.

Consider that the 10 worst cities when considering crime and poverty are all led by Democratic mayors. Flint, Michigan, hasn’t had a Republican mayor for 86 years. Detroit’s last Republican mayor was in 1957; St. Louis, 1949; Philadelphia, 1952; Baltimore and Oakland, the 1960s. Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, has been Democrat since 1927 and is flat broke, with junk bond status, and home to some of the worst inner-city violence imaginable.

Of the 25 worst cities for crime in 2019, 24 of 25 have a mayor who is a Democrat. Sanctuary cities only add to existing social problems, and we see the homeless defecating in the streets in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Today, anyone who wishes to see our immigration laws upheld is branded a racist and a xenophobe by the liberal left — and then they wonder where all this polarization our country is experiencing is coming from.

For trying to uphold our existing laws, the left never ceases to stop calling President Trump a racist and a bigot. Out comes the “white supremacist” label, and the barrage never stops. Race card, indeed, Mr. Brandt!

John Porta Westhampton